The Politics of Financial Services Liberalization: The Case of the Canadian Investment Dealer Industry

The purpose of this paper is to explain the factors and processes which, in 1986–87, gave rise to the decisions by the Canadian federal and provincial (Ontario and Quebec) regulatory authorities to liberalize entry into, and ownership of, the investment dealer industry in Canada. These decisions, rather narrowly based as they were, nonetheless would be a watershed with respect to the subsequent deregulation of the traditional four-pillar structure of the Canadian financial services industry. The traditional four pillars-which were legally and functionally separated-comprised the chartered banks, the trust and mortgage loan companies, the life insurance industry, and the investment dealers. lhe liberalization decisions by the governments permitted the other elements of the four pillars, and nonresidents as well, to have equity participations in member firms of the securities industry. This represented a fundamental reversal of the beliefs, values, and ideas surrounding the low-pillars doctrine. The period of history examined extends from 1969 to 1987.     

Politics,Society and Financial Liberalization: Turkey in the 1990s

This article focuses on the political economy of Turkey in the 1990s to illustrate the importance of analysing economic variables that intersect with the quality of political democracy. In 1989, the debt‐ridden state moved to systematically and completely deregulate Turkey’s financial markets. Together with the ongoing processes of liberalizing commodity markets and integrating with global capital markets, financial liberalization was expected to achieve fiscal and monetary stability, stimulate business confidence to invest in productive sectors, produce stable growth, encourage privatization and control inflation. However, the new hegemony of the capital markets has gone hand‐in‐hand with deteriorating macroeconomic performance, a worsening income distribution, the discrediting of politics and its isolation from society. The authors examine several key dynamics which are helping to legitimate the neoliberal agenda of the 1990s. These include the distribution of state largesse to manipulate electoral capitalism; the rise of an informal sector in the ‘Anatolian Tigers’; promotion of the seductive attractions of the market; and an antipolitical reform populism adopted by political actors to exploit popular disillusionment with the political system.     

National Factor Markets and the Macroeconomic Context for Environmental Destruction in the Brazilian Amazon

This paper discusses Amazonian agricultural development with emphasis on the interrelations between regional conditions and the economic context represented by the national economy. The extreme abundance of land relative to complementary factors, together with the position of the region as a price taker in both factor and output markets, create the conditions for environmentally destructive expansion of cultivation at the extensive margin. It is argued that policies to promote a more ecologically sensitive pattern of development must take into account these links with the larger Brazilian economy and society as well as conditions within the region itself.     

罗斯福"新政"金融立法评介

自从二战结束以来,美国国内关于美国金融体系的争论一直没有停止过。20世纪80年代的放松管制改革．1999年《金融服务现代化法案》的通过,标志着美国的金融体系进入了一个新的历史发展时期。这场争论似乎是以对罗斯福“新政”金融立法的全面否定而告终。在这一历史背景之下,有必要对“新政”的金融立法进行客观的评价。     

External Knowledge,Territorial Inertia and Local Development: An Exploratory Case Study

This study examines the relationship between an entrepreneur's absorptive capacity, the spiral of knowledge and local development. Although a great number of theoretical and empirical studies have pointed out the importance of local networking and informal contacts when spreading knowledge locally, very few of them have provided robust evidence on the role of the entrepreneur's absorptive capacity and external knowledge in local development. This paper tries to explain the reasons why this problem can no longer be ignored and provides a preliminary examination, through an exploratory case study, of the role that the entrepreneur's absorptive capacity and external knowledge play in overcoming territorial inertia and enhancing local development.     

Model Evaluation and Causality Testing in Short Panels: The Case of Infrastructure Provision and Population Growth in the Brazilian Amazon

In this paper we examine the relationship between infrastructure growth and population growth in the Amazon using a panel of 293 municipalities over the period from 1975 to 1985. Contemporaneous cross-section analysis confirms a strong positive correlation between infrastructure and urban population but does not indicate direction of causality. Thus, we employ a modified form of the traditional Granger causality tests to suit the short time series that we have available. Based on out-of-sample forecasting tests we conclude that the empirical evidence supports the hypothesis that growing urban populations lead to more infrastructure development, rather than vice versa.     

Economic Diversity and Regional Socioeconomic Performance: An Empirical Analysis of the Western Australian Grain Belt

One of the truisms ingrained in much regional development policy and practice is the claimed importance of economic diversity in contributing to socio-economic stability and well-being. There is, however, very little recent research examining this contention in the context of rural Australia. This paper examines the extent to which economic diversity affects the socio-economic performance of local areas in the Western Australian grain belt. The results indicate that employment diversity across industry sectors is clearly associated with population growth, labour force expansion, labour force participation, and rising median incomes. However, the paper also argues that economic diversity is not necessarily the cause of these changes, but simply one, albeit important, component of the dynamics of regional change.     

高层管理团队组成特征与饭店绩效关系的实证研究——以湖南、广东省中高档星级饭店为例

高层管理者作为企业的重要资源之一,备受研究者们的关注。国内关于饭店企业高层管理者方面的研究非常少见。本文在高层梯队理论的指导下,提出高层管理团队组成特征与饭店绩效关系的一系列理论假设,并以我国广东和湖南的114家星级饭店作为样本进行验证。研究结果表明,我国星级饭店企业高层管理团队的组成特征均值对企业绩效有影响,高层管理团队的平均受教育程度越高、平均团队任期越长,饭店企业的绩效越好;高层管理团队组成特征异质性对饭店绩效没有显著影响。     

Cross-Border Trade Liberalization: The Case of Lokmaci/Ledra Gate in Divided Nicosia,Cyprus

In the divided Walled City of Nicosia, there are two separate markets: one in the Greek Cypriot South and one in the Turkish Cypriot North. The division is the result of the unresolved Cyprus Problem. However, UN-sponsored negotiations are gradually liberalizing trade as well as movement of people across the border. On 3 April 2008, the Ledra Street/Lokmaci Gate was opened, allowing people, tourists and shoppers to cross to the other side. This event was further stimulated by action on the part of various aid agencies, principally the European Union, United States Agency for International Development and United Nations Development Program, who had invested heavily in revitalization projects to restore historic and heritage sites in the area. These two complementary effects (i.e. revitalization projects and opening the Gate) have generated significant trade creation in the business district near the Gate. It is the overall aim of this paper to quantify the “trade creation effect”. The paper reports the results of a special survey of primary shop owners in the neighbourhood of the Gate in the northern part of the capital. The study finds empirical evidence of substantial trade creation, especially for Turkish Cypriots. However, this optimistic finding is clouded by the on-going bitterness of the last divided European capital surrounded by barbwires and minefields of the UN buffer zone that prevent maximum economic prosperity of a potential political settlement.     

对旅游就业弹性测量的实证研究 --以浙江省为例

本文对旅游就业弹性进行了线性测量,较之于以往点弹性的测量能够更好的反映旅游经济增长与旅游就业增长之间的关系,测算出的旅游就业弹性大于第三产业的总体水平,因此得出结论：发展旅游业有利于更好地促进就业。本文的创新点在于提出了旅游就业人数的核算方法和旅游业就业弹性的线性测量方法。     

城市居民乡村旅游满意度的实证研究——以长沙市为例

本文构建了乡村旅游满意度系统模型。以抽样调查的方法取得了长沙市居民乡村旅游满意度的数据,通过均值分析比较乡村旅游各分满意度的高低,发现住宿满意度与餐饮满意度较高,而娱乐满意度与购物满意度较低;通过相关分析发现各分满意度均与总体满意度高度正相关;利用多元回归分析了各分满意度对总体满意的贡献,发现景点质量满意度对乡村旅游总体满意贡献最大,而交通满意度贡献最小;最后,利用单因素方差分析,得出满意度在不同人口特征城市居民中的差异性。在研究结论的基础上。提出了一些提高乡村旅游满意度的建议,并指出了本文研究的不足与下一步研究方向。